GLACIERS IN DARWIN CHANNEL AND USHUAIA, ARGENTINA

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This may be difficult to see.  It is a panoramic view.  In the right  valley is a glacier. 

We woke this morning to the sound of the announcer saying that we were at, not near, but at the first of our glaciers for today.  Well, I didn’t know that we could put on so much clothing so quickly.  But here are the pictures of the glaciers we saw today.

OK, so this is a waterfall.  We saw tons of them.  This is typical.

Yes, the color is right.  Blue.

 

Well, another one slipped in ;)  Notice that today was very cloudy and misty and rainy, so the mountains were obscured.  Maybe tomorrow will be clearer.

Ushuaia is a really cute town.  It has more German type buildings than we saw in Punta Arenas. 

 

It is the southern most city of any significant size in the world.  (they are being politically correct and leaving out all the small towns that might be souther.)

In the states we have Dollar Stores.  In China they have 2 yuan Stores (60 cents).  But here, they have Free Stores.

We found out that the items in the store were NOT Free.  It was just another duty free shop.  Too Bad.

So, we now leave for Antarctica.  We are very excited and do not expect to get any sleep until we reach the Falklands.  During the day, we will be watching icebergs and wildlife.  During the 2 hour darkness, we will be looking for aurora australias.

So, until later…..your penguins.

DARWIN CHANNEL

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Today we entered the Darwin Channel.  It is named after you know who.  We will also travel in the Beagle Channel, named after his boat.  The channel is like the fjords of New Zealand and the inland passage to Alaska.  Here, though, the mountains coming out of the sea are rocky, rather than covered with greenery.  There are some green hills, too.

 

On this little island are sea lions and lots of birds.  I know, it is very hard to see.  For us also.  But you have to take our word for it. :)

PUNTA ARENAS, CHILE

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Finally, PENGUINS

We arrived in Punta Arenas on a beautiful day.  We took the shuttle bus that took us to the downtown square.  There we were met by Penguin people.  Not that tourists come there to see penguins….ha.  There were tons of people trying to get us to take their taxis to the penguins.

Well, of course, we did.  We joined a nice young man who found 5 other passengers from our ship to join us in his van.  He said he spoke English.  He did.  Somewhat.  Luckily for us, 3 of the other passengers speak Spanish, so when he had trouble, George helped translate.

We had a wonderful time.  We rode for about 45 minutes in his rattling leaky van.  It was comfortable enough, though.  On the way to where the penguins are, we saw Sandu’s.  They are like Rea’s in New Zealand.

Here are 8 babies and Dad.  The father raises the young.

Even though the weather was beautiful in town, and even though we saw that it had rained heavily the days before we got there, we were surprised by how fast the weather changed on the way to the penguins.  When we arrived it had turned rainy, windy and even colder.  Actually the temperature was not too bad, about 45, but the wind and blowing rain made it hard to see and walk.  It was worth it.

                        

The big fluffy penguins are the babies.  They are waiting for their parents to feed them. 

These penguins are very social and are travelling down to the beach together.  One guy is running a little late and trying to catch up.

  

Besides the penguins, we took a tour of Punta Arenas.  This is an old freighter.  The town made it’s living by being a port for travelers going around the horn, before the Panama Canal was built.  This ship was left to decay when it stopped being useful. 

 

This is a sculpture depicting the major industry in Punta Arenas, sheep.  They use small horses that are strong and can work in the mountains.

 

We visited the old Catholic Cemetery.  It is located on what was once the gardens of the St. Braun family.  Since the water table is very high, all burials are in crypts or mausoleums.

This is the Braun family tomb.

Some of the mausoleums are ornate.  This is the stained glass window of one as seen through the front window.

 

Here is another beauty.  Maybe Mendez.

 

A native person was saved after washing up on the shore.  He is said to perform miracles.  So people come and ask for his help.  When he helps, the people place plaques thanking him.  He must have granted a lot of prayers, based on the number of plaques.

This is a view from the ship

In the town square, or plaza, is this statue.  The statue in the center is Magellan.

On one of the sides of this monument is a statue of a native.  You may be able to see that his foot, the one hanging down, is shiny.  That is due to people rubbing it or touching it.  If you do, you are sure to return.  Yes, we rubbed it.

AMALIA GLACIER, CHILE

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There is not much to say about a glacier.  If you need to know how they are formed and how they grow and shrink, we could tell you.  But, rather, here are some pictures, because they are really beautiful and you probably already know the rest.

 

See if you can see the amazing contours of this glacier.  As it flows downhill, it breaks apart and makes gorgeous canyons and spikes and hills of ice.

We only got to see it calf once, but it is almost impossible to catch that in a picture.  We asked it to do it again on cue, but no luck.

Here are some icebergs.  No, we missed hitting it.

 

Arleen is the one in the white jacket.  At least living in Colorado we are prepared for the weather.